Arriva London supports TfL Youth Travel Ambassadors programme

Arriva London supports local communities in many ways, so when asked to be involved in this project for yet another year, the decision was an easy one. Transport for London’s Youth Travel Ambassadors (YTA) programme is a London-wide project, involving over 120 local schools, borough councils & TfL, to help increase active travel, improve behaviour and increase safety for the 11 – 18 age group.

Arriva London supplied a double-decker bus and a bus driver (Andrew Vellosa) to be used in a video being made by Wren Academy, Barnet. The students, from years 9 & 10, researched and designed their own unique campaign to tackle anti-social behaviour and driver – student relations on their local buses. They originally pitched their idea, along with other schools, at the YTA Dragon’s Den, where they won and were awarded £250 seed funding to get their project started.

Their idea was to contrast passenger experience on a school bus journey in the 1950s with the present day, demonstrating anti-social behaviour and how to deal with it.

They filmed at various locations, including a public bus stop and Routemaster bus RM 1 at the London Transport Museum.

Once shooting had finished, we were asked to participate in a question & answer session with the students. Wren Academy Office Manager, Maria Bigg, said the school had been working on the YTA project for two years and that they were only the second group to participate.

The whole project was completely student-led, requiring them to take charge of scriptwriting, storyboarding, camera work and video editing.

The finished video will be used in assemblies, citizenship workshops and will feature on the TfL YTA YouTube channel, as well as being shared with local drivers who work their route. Also, the video will be published on the school web-site and shown to all year 7 students when they join the school.

There will be an exhibition at the London Transport Museum where all schools involved in the YTA programme will present their projects.

Michael Kitchen, TfL Youth Travel Ambassador Coordinator, said:

"Arriva have been very accommodating, providing us with a double-decker bus and a driver which really brings the project to life. It’s important for students to see what goes on behind the scenes, to get a deeper understanding of what drivers deal with on a daily basis. We are very grateful for their support."